After probably the best birthday party to date, Eleanor slept peacefully into the late morning hours. Her slumber was not disrupted by nightmares or negative thoughts, but rather she was lulled to sleep by wonderful memories of spending time with her family and friends. With the party ending past midnight, Eleanor made sure to set an alarm especially since Grandpa Lyall made plans to take her to the Ministry of Magic in the afternoon for her Apparition Test. She did manage to wake up before her alarm though to the smells of breakfast being cooked downstairs.
Making her way to the bathroom, she showered and brushed her teeth before heading back to her room and getting dressed. Grabbing Fred's jumper that she had packed away in her trunk, she slipped it on, hoping that it would bring her some good luck with her test. Getting dressed the rest of the way, she proceeded to make her way down to the kitchen, expecting to see her parents or maybe Nixie or Sirius sharing in some food. However, as she walked in, the kitchen was empty as was the living room.
She was just about to call out to see who was awake when she heard voices sound from the back garden. The window over the sink was open, leaving her the perfect opportunity to eavesdrop on the conversation. At first, Eleanor was against the idea of being nosy, but as soon as she heard her name, she simply couldn't help herself. Approaching the window, she easily recognised her father's voice, along with Nixie's.
"I guess it was ignorant of me to believe that everything was over after the war," Nixie said, "even if I didn't like how things ended up, I was foolish to believe that it was all over for good. To believe that Voldemort had been truly destroyed, I feel like such an idiot. I mocked his followers for every believing that one day he would return and now look at where we are."
"I don't think it was a matter of ignorance, Nixie," Remus told her, "The majority of believed that he was gone, even a lot of his own followers did. What happened that night with Harry, we couldn't have known it was going to end like that. And he vanished, we all thought he was destroyed, and I suppose in some ways, he was. His body was destroyed. It had to be after what Harry witnessed. It sounded like a rebirth of sorts. I don't know how he managed to do that besides some obvious dark magic."
"I don't know," she replied, "throughout everything that happened around that time, I remember how stunned I was that Harry had survived the Killing Curse. The same curse that took the lives of some of the greatest witches and wizards of our times. He managed to survive and was only left with a scar. I never thought I would hear anything like it again and then...then...Ellie...your daughter...how does it even work?"
Remus shook his head. "Truth be told, Eleanor isn't even sure of it. She's insisted over and over that she doesn't place any enchantment on the garments, she's not even thinking about magic when she's knitting. I don't know how it works but I assume because she uses her wand to knit, the magic itself is going into the yarn itself."
"What made her think to use her wand in the first place?"
Before Remus could respond, Eleanor heard some movement from behind and glanced over her shoulder. She became startled by Sirius appearing behind her causing her to cry out. Her spying came to an end as Remus and Nixie rushed back inside to see what had happened. Upon seeing Eleanor clutching the front of her jumper and trying to catch her breath, the two adults looked over to Sirius with accusing looks.
"I didn't do anything!" he stated quickly. "I was just coming in here to eat!"
"He's right," Eleanor said, "I just got spooked is all. It wasn't his fault. I didn't hear him come into the kitchen initially."
She could only watch as Nixie's eyes flickered in the direction of the open window, but she didn't mention it before suggesting that everyone make themselves a plate.
"Wait a minute!" Sirius called out before anyone could serve themselves. "Who prepared this food?"
Eleanor was confused especially when her father tried to cover up his laughter with his hand. While Sirius waited on the answer, it was Nixie who looked positively offended by his question, folding her arms across her chest, and glaring in his direction. Looking to her father for an explanation, Remus motioned her to come closer so he could whisper.
"Let's just say that mermaids are not known for their cooking skills," he said, only to jump as Nixie rounded on him. "But they are excellent at so many other things- "
"Oh, don't try and butter me up now!"
Margaret walked in the midst of the commotion, wearing a similar puzzled expression to Eleanor's as she saw everyone standing around with plates, but no one actually serving themselves.
"What is there something wrong with the food?" she asked. "I swear I made everything fresh."
"That was the answer I was looking for," Sirius said before tiptoeing around his wife. Nixie muttered something under her breath at him before everyone began gathering some food to sit down.
Once everyone was settled, it appeared as though Nixie forgave Sirius and Remus for insulting her cooking and admitted that unfortunately, they were right. Unfortunately, between her and her mother, they had never gotten the hang of cooking, no matter how carefully they followed recipes.
"I did poorly in Potions too," she admitted, "I think the only reason Slughorn continued to give me a passing grade was because he was fascinated by the fact that I was half-mermaid. The number of cauldrons I melted; I never did get my potions right. Bless Lily for always trying to help me make it look half decent."
There were so many things that Eleanor wanted to ask now that she was able to spend more time with Nixie and Sirius outside of the cave. She wanted to learn all about them and their time in Hogwarts with her father. She wanted to learn more about Nixie's mermaid lineage or the Animagus process that Sirius had gone through back when he was in school. She also wanted to ask about Sirius' birthday and what they had all sworn to secrecy about. However, her time was cut short as a knock on the door revealed that Grandpa Lyall had arrived to escort Eleanor to her apparition test.
The night before, all of her friends including Fred, told her how easy the test had been when they had taken it, reassuring her that she had nothing to worry about. But for some reason, all Eleanor could think of was the story that Fred had told her about their older brother Charlie landing on an old lady doing her shopping when he had taken his test the first time.
It would just be her luck that something similar would happen to her.
"I don't know much about this apparating business," Margaret said to her before she was about to leave, "but I know you're going to do fine, Ellie. You always manage to do fine; you just need to stop letting those kinds of thoughts get to your head. You're going to pass your test and then you'll be able to start your internship."
Despite Margaret making a complete one-eighty in becoming a supportive mother, it still managed to catch Eleanor off guard whenever they shared a moment with each other. Margaret had been putting in consistent effort to learn as much as she could about the wizarding world, even if she didn't know the ins and outs of everything, she was doing her best to keep up with the terminology so she could remain involved in conversations.
It meant the world to Eleanor because that was all she had ever wanted out of her mother.
Remus said something similar afterwards while reminding her to just remain focus on her task and to remember what she learned during her classes. Her parents brought her into a hug, and it was moments like those that Eleanor sometimes wondered if she was still dreaming. To go from not knowing her father and having a strained relationship with her mother to having a wonderful relationship with both, she would have never believed such a thing would happen if anyone had told it would years ago.
Sirius and Nixie wished her the best of luck before Lyall claimed they had better get going so that she would be on time for her appointment.
Stepping inside the fireplace, Lyall grabbed a handful of Floo Powder as Eleanor came to stand beside him. He dropped it, calling out the location of the Ministry and the two were gone.
Arriving at the Ministry of Magic, Eleanor followed her grandfather to the sixth level where the Department of Magical Transportation was located. The first thing Eleanor noticed was the seal of the department that resembled that of a biohazard warning. If that was supposed to be a nod at the dangers of the types of magical transportation it didn't make Eleanor feel any better. But posted on the walls were posters of the Hogwarts Express
Lyall led the way to Apparation Test Centre, where the two found an older wizard who appeared to be napping at his desk. The desk plaque said, "Calvin Moore, Apparition Instructor" leaving the two to exchange side glances with each other. Thinking there had to be another instructor available, Eleanor went to look around, but Lyall had other plans as he slammed one of his hands down on the desk.
"Good afternoon, Mr Moore!"
The man nearly fell out of his chair as he jumped awake and looked around. Upon seeing Eleanor and Lyall, he straightened the front of his robes as he cleared his throat. He pushed his glasses up that had slid down his nose during his nap and stared blankly at the two.
"Good afternoon," the man yawned, " how can I help you?"
"This is my granddaughter Eleanor Ross and she's here to apply for her apparition licence. She took the classes at Hogwarts this past year, but she only turned seventeen as of yesterday."
"Oh, how exciting," Mr Moore said, although, by how slow he spoke and the monotonous tone, he didn't sound very excited. "Well, Ms Ross if you're ready, you can follow me."
Mr Moore stepped out from behind his desk, nearly bent over in half with how hunched over he was as he walked or rather, as he shuffled. It also didn't help that he looked incredibly frail as if the slightest gust of wind would take him away. All Eleanor could think of was the force of apparating snapping the man in half.
But as she looked over to Lyall for any sort of assistance, he merely gave her an encouraging two thumbs up.
Meanwhile, Fred was back at the Burrow spending most of the afternoon being lazy. Well, that was only partially true, it was the front he was putting up along with George whenever their mother was around, but in reality, the two were at work budgeting out all the money they had received towards the business. They had sworn their younger siblings to secrecy, telling them they couldn't tell Molly that they had been gifted with a thousand galleons. More than likely, Molly was going to try to tell the two to invest the money more "wisely" than what they had planned.
To avoid any sort of argument, it was best to keep things hushed. So, whenever Molly came around, Fred allowed his mind to wander back to the night before of celebrating Eleanor's birthday. He had enjoyed himself, of course, glad to see Eleanor in better spirits rather than the stressed-out state he had witnessed over the week before. He knew she was taking her apparition test that afternoon and wondered how she was doing or how it had gone. He figured she would send Dermot with her results soon enough. In the meantime, he was sure she passed the test just fine.
"Fred, Mum says you need to stop being lazy and go de-gnome the garden," Ginny's voice rang out, "and before you try to argue, she said 'no excuses.'"
Fred sat up on the sofa, wearing an incredulous look because none of his siblings had been called upon to join him in the garden. Why did she single him out? Looking over at George, his twin appeared just as confused, shrugging his shoulders. Pushing himself up, Fred made his way to the garden to ask his mother why she was only telling him to get to work. However, as he came to stand outside, he didn't find Molly in the garden, but rather his girlfriend.
"Ellie? Ellie, what are you doing here?"
Eleanor didn't say anything right away, her brows were raised as she was waiting for him to guess or figure it out and after a moment, it clicked.
"You passed?"
"I passed!"
The excited noise that escaped from him made Eleanor laugh but it didn't matter as he brought her into a hug. He was also beyond thrilled to see that she was wearing the jumper he had given her too.
"I thought for sure I was going to fail," she told him once they pulled away from each other, "my instructor made Wilkie Twycross look young. You should have seen him. His nose hair was longer than the hair on the top of his head. And at one point, he stood up straight and I think I heard every bone in his body pop. We left the Ministry and he brought me to Diagon Alley. I had to go to three different shops and collect a token and bring it back to him in under five minutes."
"That's way more than what we had to do for the test in Hogsmeade," Fred said, "We only had to go to one shop to receive a token and bring it back."
"Well, it doesn't matter now, all that matters is that I passed. When I got back to the Ministry, Grandpa Lyall brought me to Madam Bones' office to tell her the good news. She seemed happy enough and told me to report to her office on Monday morning for my first day! I was going to go home but I changed my mind and came here first. Ginny was outside when I showed up... "
"That little git," Fred muttered, "she told me Mum said that I needed to stop being lazy and de-gnome the garden."
"Can't be too upset with her, she got you out here, didn't she?"
Fred invited Eleanor inside to tell George the good news. He was in the middle of congratulating her with a hug when the three of them heard the sound of cracking outside of the Burrow, followed by two voices loudly bickering on the other side of the front door.
"Honestly, woman! You're worse than Charlie sometimes when it comes to this!"
"You know that's a lie! I wasn't fully concentrated, maybe because someone insisted on being rather distracting before we left!"
"I didn't know it was going to explode when I touched it! It wasn't my fault!"
"It was so your fault! It clearly stated right on the package that it would explode if touched!"
"Well, I didn't read it!"
"Clearly!"
While Eleanor didn't know what to expect, the twins knew exactly what to expect as they ran over to the door and pulled it open. Instantly, Eleanor recognised Anora, her bright white hair was practically reflecting the sunlight and beside her, was a woman with bubble-gum pink hair. Eleanor remembered her from Hogwarts as she had been in the Hufflepuff house when she was younger, but she couldn't remember the woman's name.
Fred and George were delighted to see Anora as they engulfed her in a hug and even Ginny, who had entered the room to see what all the commotion was about ran over to say hello. Meanwhile, the other woman stood to the side with an annoyed expression.
"What am I? Dead?! Where's my love?"
"We missed you too, Tonks," George said, hugging her. "It's about time you two came to visit. We didn't even get to see you during the tournament. We only saw Charlie and Anora for a few minutes before they had to leave again."
"Please, you're telling me, I can't get them to visit me either. Too busy running around with dragons to remember us."
"You all are so dramatic," Anora huffed in their direction, "I didn't see any of your arses coming to visit us!"
Feeling as though she was intruding on the reunion, Eleanor was thinking about excusing herself and returning home but as soon as she moved all eyes fell on her. Awkwardly, she lifted her hand and waved at the two newcomers.
"Ellie, isn't it?" Tonks said as she walked over to her. "You were in Hufflepuff, weren't you? I remember you; you were always knitting at the table."
"Uh, yeah, that was me- "
"Well, it's nice to actually meet you," she told Eleanor, "I've heard a lot about you."
Eleanor was about to look over in Fred's direction, wondering what he had said but Tonks continued.
"And you have to be pretty interesting because from what I heard, Moody doesn't talk about just anyone."